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Thom's blog in this space and moving to a new home.
Please follow us across to hartmannreport.com - this will be the only place going forward to read Thom's blog posts and articles.
To Thom's credit, I believe he attributed the Medicare Part "E" idea to Dennis Kucinich. Thom certainly deserves credit for reinvigorating it's application at a opportune time.
Didn't Thom coin the phrase "Medicare E" ? Olberman tried to take credit for it tonight. He keeps stealing Thom's ideas:-) I guess that's a compliment, but geeze give some credit, eh.
Re: Hate Crimes
If there shouldn't be consideration as to whether a crime was committed with the intent to cause terror to a group, then other special circumstances should not matter either. For example, crimes against police officers, the President or Federal workers.
After experiencing firsthand the havoc that heavy snowfall can have on airport operations last year, and snow fall as late as April in a part of the country that rarely sees snow at all, it is a fair question to ask if global warming is really happening at all. However, according to many scientists who know more about this than I do, this is also a function of global warming, it is said, to be responsible for extreme weather conditions. At any rate, statistical analysis over the past few decades also suggests that there have been far more incidents of record high temperatures than record low temperatures, which would suggest an overall warming tread.
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Naysayers such as Thom’s guest from the Climate Depot say that because oceans have risen only barely perceptibly, that this is solid proof that global warming is not occurring. Others say that even if climate change is occurring, it is doing so at such a slow pace that we have plenty of time to figure out how to adapt to it. One scientist, Princeton physicist J. Richard Gott, has assured us that that humanity isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, like say between 5,000 and 7,800,000 years. As Alfred E. Newman would say: “What, me worry?”
One problem seems to be that most of the harm humans do to the environment is out-of-sight, out-of-mind. Fishermen the world over know that decreasing yields in catch means something bad is happening. They may or may not admit that the cause of this is over-fishing and pollution, but in spite of warnings that they must effect changes in their way of doing business, they continue to resist adjusting themselves regardless of the ultimate consequences of their actions. Why? Maybe it is because they see the same thing landlubbers do—a vast expanse of ocean filled by what we imagine, not what we don’t wish to know.
What the naysayers won’t admit is that human activity, more than that of any other animal that has ever existed, have effected the environment in ways that nature had never been intended to adapt to, and because of this has reacted in ways that are opposed to the “natural” fashion of adapting to alterations in the environment. Man-made chemicals, toxins and pesticides had properties that had never been encountered before; the environment has absorbed these abnormal products, but has been unable to assimilate them. Because of that, fish die off, the number of song birds in many areas of the country have been reduced by 70 percent, trees are dying of disease, nuclear and chemical waste sites are ticking time bombs, drinkable fresh water is diminishing, and the deliberate processes of nature are too slow to replace what humans have destroyed.
We are told that there is plenty of time to mend our ways; in the mean time, we do virtually nothing. Year after year, nothing. We know, but we do nothing. There may come a time when what we know isn’t enough to allow us to do anything.
In Erick Ericksons’s book, “The Eight Stages of Human Development,” the last stage is Integrity. If 50% of our population is over 45 years of age and 90% of the 50% lack Integrity, then we are a nation that lacks Integrity; we cannot be trusted; and we have corruption in our heart. We are truly an evil nation.
Food for thought. It would be ridiculous for prison sentences to be based on someone's hourly wage. In such a system, Bill Gates might spend 15 minutes in prison for a crime, while a peach picker would spend 30 years. Likewise we have a progressive tax system, where people are taxed according to their ability so that the load is more equal.
I thank Suzanne Somers for her work and for challenging the cancer industry.
My partner had Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma and Chemo/Radiation was everything he always feared it would be. It was awful, but it DID work, he is 3 yrs in remission. I can't imagine anyone having to go through that torture if they didn't have to.
My partner's grandmother had terminal lung cancer in the early 80s. She underwent chemo because her family insisted. It did not work, and she suffered needlessly during her last months. Had this test been available to show the chemo would not work I bet they would not have pushed her into treatment.
the Hypehenated American quote is in fact from Theodore Roosevelt
"There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. When I refer to hyphenated Americans, I do not refer to naturalized Americans. Some of the very best Americans I have ever known were naturalized Americans, Americans born abroad. But a hyphenated American is not an American at all.
This is just as true of the man who puts “native” before the hyphen as of the man who puts German or Irish or English or French before the hyphen. Americanism is a matter of the spirit and of the soul. Our allegiance must be purely to the United States. We must unsparingly condemn any man who holds any other allegiance.
But if he is heartily and singly loyal to this Republic, then no matter where he was born, he is just as good an American as any one else.
The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities, an intricate knot of German-Americans, Irish-Americans, English- Americans, French-Americans, Scandinavian- Americans, or Italian-Americans, each preserving its separate nationality, each at heart feeling more sympathy with Europeans of that nationality than with the other citizens of the American Republic.
The men who do not become Americans and nothing else are hyphenated Americans; and there ought to be no room for them in this country. The man who calls himself an American citizen and who yet shows by his actions that he is primarily the citizen of a foreign land, plays a thoroughly mischievous part in the life of our body politic. He has no place here; and the sooner he returns to the land to which he feels his real heart-allegiance, the better it will be for every good American. "
Addressing the Knights of Columbus in New York City
12 October 1915
not sure on the context in which the gentleman that posed it was trying to put it forth, but there it is never the less
great show today, as always
We’ve been infantilized, lobotomized, and turned into consumerist chattel that live on credit, buying things we don’t need with money we don’t have. We no longer have an admired workforce of educated and talented workers. We used to be the envy of the world. America had machinists and mechanics and builders and engineers, a skilled workforce. This is no longer the case. Our economy has been gutted of factories and steel mills. We make very little in this country today.
Seventy percent of our economy is consumer based. The financial sector capsized the economy through toxic derivatives and securitization of “vapor assets.” The so-called "wizards of Wall Street" even sold insurance as a hedge against the toxic assets going south. Irrational exuberance is a phrase that does not adequately define the extreme greed and criminal behavior that destroyed our country.
But turn out the lights, the party’s over. At this point, there’s nothing you can do, nothing anyone can do. No stimulus package or Treasury or Federal Bank policy is going to save us. Obama will do all that he can, but in the end the American economy is in for ten or more years of pure, unadulterated economic wilderness.
It occurs to me that the capacity of the intenet has been increasing with technological improvement. Isn't it feasible to assume that at some future point, capacity will reach near infinity, eliminating the arguments over who gets priority on the internet highway?
As for the present, if AT&T is investing in its own network and wishes to ensure priority on its media services over others, shouldn't it have that right? And since AT&T will want to keep its customers, wouldn't it be market-driven to ensure that its network is built big enough to make everyone happy by ensuring adequate speed for all users?
Ultimately, the goal should be placement of fiber to every residence and business, since fiber provides the greatest capacity for broadband. Other countries are far ahead of us in providing broadband service. We should take steps to catch up.
Thom,
Just heard your conversation with Suzanne Sommers and I glad that someone finally is letting this woman speak about the truth of cancer! I can tell you from personal expericene that what she says about cancer is true! I have a fiance that was diagnosised with "heavy metal/chemical poisoning almost five years ago. He first went to conventional doctors who did nothing but run test , bill his insurance and were never able to detemine what was going on ( thought they would never have know, even if he had died!). Finally, I found a doctor in Bellevue WA who treats people for what he calls "Occupational Illinesses. He was able to determine that his symptoms were directely related to his over exposure to chemicals and heavy metals from the type of work he had done for years! ( he had owned a automotive/glass business) He had done a lot of welding, glass and metal fabrication. He was diagonised with having over " normal" amounts of lead, mercury, nickel, aluminium and thorium. He had to stop doing his work ( that he had done for 22 years) or face the fact that he would die from cancer within 3 to 6 months. He had to have all of his " mercury filled fillings" removed and replaced with porcelain, start a treatment of "Chelation", (which they use in other countries to treat cancer- look it up) change his diet to all organics, not eat anything with corn, wheat, and soy in it ( to take a load off of his liver so it would heal naturally) don't drink coffee or alchol, unless we knew how it was grown or processed. No shellfish or bottom fish either, because of the mercury content. He had to take a mix of herbs and vitamins to help pull the metals out of his body too. The biggest help though was exercising. He had to exercise at least 1 to 2 hours everyday to help "sweat" the poisons out of his system , which he loved doing. We had been mountain bike racing prior to his illiness. Also, I believe that Lance Armstrong did a lot of exercise and Kelation treatment with his cancer treatment - look it up! He has followed this routine now for almost 5 years. When he first went back after six months for a checkup the doctor was astounded at how different he looked and how much better his lab results were. He is actually heathier now than he has been most of his life. My point to this whole story is that Suzanne is right about having a healthy diet and exercise and life style to prevent and cure cancer. There is no "magic pill" or fix to get rid of cancer, but there are natural cures and treatments that the "Big" pharma's and Insurance industries DO NOT want us to use. So, they try to down play these people who come out and speakup for them and try to make people believe that they are just a bunch of "Crazy people" who don't know what they are talking about. There is a great book " The Field" written by a highly intelligent woman, Lynne McTarrgart. In this book she talks about how a world renowned biophysics, Fitz Albert Popp, discovered how the herb, European Mistletoe cured a terminal ill woman of cancer. Like Suzanne said on the show, he only gave her this herb treatment with no chemo or radiation. Within one year she was cured. If a person looks on the internet for " mistletoe", you will find that they have been using this herb in europe to treat people for cancer for many years. I get so angry when I hear these "Cancer experts" in this country rag on people who offer alternative treatment. They act like eating well, living well and using what the natural world gives us is a bunch of hogwash!!!! to treat our illnesses. I think that the people in other parts of the world, who have been doing this for "THOUSANDS OF YEARS" may know a thing or two on how to treat " disease". Our society is so hooked on a "quick-fix" for everything that we are willing to sacrifice what is so precious to us, our FREE WILL to choose our treatment for a better life. I hope that Suzanne can make a dent in this corporate owned healthcare, and hopefully save some peoples lives. If people would just take the initative and choose for themselves how they want to treat their illiness and not allow the "norm" to control them, "think outside the box", then maybe the so called " healthcare" industry ( thats the problem they have made it into an industy to make LOTS OF MONEY off of) would not be controlling us now!!!
There are few simple pleasures which I savor more than a good cup of coffee and a thick Sunday morning newspaper over which conversation flows between traded sections. Over the years, the conversations and coffee has improved but our local paper has faded and grown weak. With the addition of WiFi our laptop has been allocated space at the breakfast table too. We welcome the many choices made available by it's technology but no keyboard or screen will replace` the touch and smell of virgin newsprint for us. The type of leveraged buyout Thom has so often has lamented resulted in the slow demise of our local newspaper. The dismantling of our democracy by the corporatists and casino capitalists is holistic and near complete. If they get the Net, then it is the game-set-match.
We will go to the President's website. We asked UHC if they covered colonoscopys and they said yes according to the policy in Nov. Then Dave had a MRI the following Feb. UHC only play for one procedure and that was the cheaper MRI, we had to pay $3,000.00 to the hospital and doctor. When the back doctor suggested physical therapy, asked if we could do yoga instead and he said yes. PT here is $125.00 an hour and we pay $50.00 for six yoga practices. We attended the health town hall meetings and there is more support for reform than our elected officials think.
I heard a discussion with Fred von Lohmann, senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, over the weekend. He said that while the EFF was completely in favor of net neutrality, FCC regulations to insure net neutrality might be the camel’s nose under the tent. They’re concerned that the FCC might not stop with regulating the Internet there.
He also said that they’re concerned that major telecom companies (that lobby the FCC every day) might be able to use FCC regulation of the Internet to their advantage. As an example, he said that AT&T has asked the FCC regulate Google Voice because it blocks (or is somehow incompatible) with some AT&T service.
He said that everyone interested in the topic (including Congress) are waiting to see what the FCC comes up with next week.
You can hear the interview at
http://pacifist.net/dv/audio/dv09101702.mp3
Telephone - Internet - Broadcasting ... the commodity in question is all ONE THING, whether it's over a wire or via the "ether". Among techno-geeks like myself, it's known as BANDWIDTH ... that part of the spectrum over which your "signal" is transmitted.
It's somewhat different for print media - the only bandwidth required for the consumption of print is the availability of space in your brain to receive the message,and the willingness to utilize that space to absorb new ideas and concepts.
OH! - new ideas ... THAT'S what the rethugs object to, isn't it??!!
Does Dan Gaynor (the Business & Media guest) think there is no problem, or does he simply unable to come up with a solution?
If he thinks media concentration is no problem, then just say so plainly!
@Mena -
Hmmm ... $4050 MIGHT actually cover the Anesthesiologist's charge. :(
@Mena --- can you share your story more broadly - we need to have more true stories like yours! If you don't blog, please consider at least http://stories.barackobama.com/healthcare/
We leave next month for Ghent, Belgium where Dave will have hip resurfacing, similar to hip replacement but less invasive and he'll have more mobility after the surgery. We will save over $60,000.00 by doing this. United Health Care pays $4050.00 per hip surgery. We are like so many Americans, poor health insurance but do not qualify for government assistance.
Echoes of George P. Lakoff and his book "Moral Politics" . . .
The two most heinous words in the healthcare debate: “Under Sixty-Five”.
Thom,
“Darwin Awards” aren’t for plain stupidity.
The “Darwin” Award rewards someone for benefiting mankind by removing themselves from the gene pool through their own stupidity.
Typically, the winner must die to be eligible, but on rare occasions, simply wounding themselves in a manner that assures that they will never pro-create, can allow a living person eligible for the award.
But ordinary stupidity doesn’t make you a “Darwin Award” candidate, it makes you a Republican. :)
Two of my favorite public people are Thom Hartmann and Bill Maher. I cringe however whenever either one of them starts talking about medicine. Both have a somewhat eccentric view of medicine. Add Suzanne Somers to the mix and I can count on hearing half-baked carried to a new extreme in regards to rational scientific discourse. Be very skeptical people, your chances of getting accurate and responsible medical information here, based on verifiable data and scientific review might actually be better if you were to consult Tom Cruise or perhaps Sarah Palin.
Prediction: Suzanne Somers will use a curious term...i.e. " whole body cancer". Nonsense.
Without "Net neutrality", how would a "small" site ever compete with already big companies that get high priority?
Where would YouTube be today if we didn't have "Net Neutrality" when it began?
NET –NEUTRALITY: The portal and search sites are bottle-necking and diverting access to sites outside of their desired point of view (or paid support) by streamlining access to their preferred version of propaganda.
I recommend clicking on: http://www.freepress.net/ and signing up for their news letters.